"A compelling personal account; told with insight and depth."
Deborah Frances-White has a unique tale to tell at this year’s Fringe and unlike a lot of other exaggerated anecdotes you may have come across, it really did happen – she has the photographic evidence to prove it.
When she was 14, her parents decided the family should all become Jehovah’s Witnesses, a suggestion she gamely went along with as a lonely teenager with no friends. But as she got older, she began to rebel. The comedian in her made jokes at meetings to get attention (albeit rather corny ones but she did the best she could with the material she had), and she declared she wanted to go to university, a suggestion her ‘elders’ were firmly against. Her growing doubts and some chance encounters lead her to quit the Jehovah’s for good, which she recounts in dramatic flashback sequences, before returning to her chattier, stand-up self.
On top of her personal journey from timid cult follower to a ballsy 21st century liberal, Frances-White’s story is doubly intriguing because we know so little about Jehovah’s Witnesses. We hear about elements of her former life she has to relinquish in order to join, from the predictable to the amusingly random. Then there’s the message the Jehovah’s are trying to deliver to us, which, as she points out, none of us know because we do a very good job of hiding when they come a ‘knocking.
If you’re looking for something that will have you bent double laughing, this probably isn’t for you. While there are some playful sections involving the audience and a funny manipulation of source material, these are the strongest comic sections of a show that is more of a gently amusing narrative than a riotous comedy show. Still, if you like a good story, you won’t be disappointed. Frances-White is a witty and assured raconteur and this is a compelling personal account; told with insight and depth.
Emma McAlpine
Deborah Frances-White: Cult Following is at the Assembly Roxy at 4:15pm until the 27th August
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